


Showered in Memories of Home

by rbcccmly



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Fluffy Ending, Happy Ending, Homesick Lance (Voltron), Light Angst, M/M, Some Cursing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 03:43:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7668772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rbcccmly/pseuds/rbcccmly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lance's homesickness is beginning to make him angsty, and so Keith tries to fix it.</p>
<p>However, he has no idea exactly *how* he has fixed it since he had Shiro and Coran do all of the work for him. Now he's curious, and follows Lance to see exactly what had been done.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Showered in Memories of Home

**Author's Note:**

> What better way to celebrate my first fic by uploading some Klance, am I right?
> 
> I hope you all enjoy the angst/fluff!

A week had passed since the Castle of Lions had been left devoid of Allura’s father, King Alfor, after being infected by the Galra crystal. The team of Paladins, Allura, and Coran had all been involved in attempting to decode Sendak’s memories, helping to keep the princess busy in order to not dwell on her loss. The castle was now on course for the Galra Universal Station, with Allura and Coran working on defences whilst the Paladins began routine training in preparation for their arrival.

Alterations had been made to the castle’s defences and system throughout that week. The small group were now safe from all threats of the Galra crystal having previously crashed and taken over the system, which helped to relieve each of them for the most part.

One Paladin in particular failed to feel at ease, however.

“Focus, Lance!”

After recovering from yet another strong shock from the invisible maze, Lance tore off his helmet and threw it down to the floor with a frustrated yell. It landed heavily with a clang and rolled a few feet away, only to hit one of the electric walls and bounce back to the Blue Paladin’s feet. “Just switch it off, Shiro! We’ve been at this for ages!”

“You need to put your helmet back on, before you really hurt yourself!” The Black Paladin strictly instructed from where he was stood at the controls, tense now that Lance wasn’t fully protected from the strong electrical shocks. He, too, was now getting a little tired and frustrated with how often Lance was failing, though he tried his best to hold himself together. He knew why the other was acting like this, and didn’t want to make things worse. “You can’t give up when you’re so close—“

Lance scoffed, “Close? I’m only close because I’m being directed by the shocks after every couple of steps!”

Shiro sighed and, knowing he wouldn’t be able to change Lance’s mind, lifted a hand to power off the maze. Lance had been getting increasingly difficult to communicate and train with ever since he had been injured by the blast when the castle was back on the planet of Arus. He seemed to be a ticking time-bomb nowadays; one that could only be delayed and calmed by being sent to one place in particular. “…Alright, it’s off. You should probably put away your armour and—“

“And shower? Yeah, I know. That’s all I ever do now anyways,” the younger Paladin grumbled, bending down to snatch up his helmet and storm out of the maze as soon as he knew that it had been deactivated. He made his way straight out of the room and headed out to put away his armour, oblivious to the other set of eyes that watched him curiously from the other end of the sector.

Keith had heard the commotion from the maze during his time training with the gladiator across the hall, and ended his training session to watch from the door as Lance stormed out. The Red Paladin noted that although the other’s face was twisted into a tight scowl, it didn’t look particularly angry. Instead, it was more of a defensive expression that was attempting to hide what Lance was really feeling. An expression that was growing increasingly familiar the longer the Paladins spent in the Castle of Lions.

Lance was homesick.

It was really quite obvious; especially to Keith, Hunk and Coran, who had all been present to see Lance slip away from the celebratory party thrown by the Paladins and Arusians after defeating their first Galra monster. Eventually it became known to the whole team, and despite everyone feeling a sense of homesickness for themselves, everyone collectively agreed that the Blue Paladin was by far the most affected. So after the castle’s system was cleared, Keith had Shiro approach Allura and Coran about creating new holographic memories. Only this time, Lance would be the provider.

When he had first asked Shiro to bring the subject up to the royals, the Black Paladin had been a little confused.

\------

_“I didn’t know you cared so much about Lance. Aren’t you two rivals? You both still compete with everything,”_ _Shiro pointed out, which admittedly made Keith feel the slightest bit uncomfortable. He swallowed, and then tried to come up with an excuse that fitted with his request._

_“I just know that if we don’t do something about it now, he’s only going to get worse. What if he refuses to train and pilot the Blue Lion altogether?” The Red Paladin murmured, ensuring that nobody could possibly overhear him despite knowing that they were alone in the halls for now. “We can’t form Voltron without him. We can’t risk it getting even worse than it is now.”_

_With that, Shiro sighed and nodded. “I suppose you’re right, and it’s worth a shot. Good idea, Keith.”_

\------

Thankfully, both Allura and Coran agreed when Shiro came forward to explain what Keith had suggested to him. Coran was the most experienced when it came to extracting the memories, and he had also been present with Lance when the Paladin had been feeling homesick the first time, so he put himself forward to work with Lance.

The Blue Paladin had been hesitant when Coran first approached him with the suggestion, however. He had seen Sendak in a concealed pod whilst his memory was being accessed, and he knew that he would have to be put inside one himself to transfer his memories to the ship’s system. And after being trapped in a healing pod just a day or so before, he was understandably nervous. It was the only way however, and so he agreed. Nobody besides Coran and Lance had been present during the process, and so Keith was left in the dark as to what had actually been created for the other Paladin. He wasn’t sure how much Allura or the other Paladins knew about what had been created, but then again, he never asked. Keith knew that it was located in the shower room, which he thought was odd, but that was all he knew. Why hadn’t Lance been given the holograms inside his own room, or his own bathroom?

Plagued by curiosity and what he believed was concern for the other Paladin, Keith slipped away from the gladiator’s training deck and began to subtly follow Lance through the castle. He was a few paces behind, but close enough to notice how the Lance’s body language no longer showed his cockiness or confidence as he walked. He was now tense and slightly hunched over, clinging to his helmet with one hand and looking smaller and even a little more vulnerable than usual. His footsteps were heavy, both from his armour and how he dragged out each step like a frustrated and saddened child. This only served to give the Red Paladin more reason to find out exactly what was going on, and had him waiting outside of Lance’s room for several minutes whilst the other male supposedly changed out of his armour and into his casual clothes.

After ten minutes of staring at Lance’s door from around the corner and glancing around to make sure that no one could see him, Keith was about to give up and return to his own training. Perhaps Lance had decided against showering for today? He could always try to follow him another time, he supposed…

Moments after thinking this however, the Blue Paladin’s door slid open with an airy mechanical noise. Lance reappeared and continued on through the castle, now dressed in his usual loose-fitting denim jeans, light gray and navy blue long-sleeved shirt, cargo jacket, and gray and blue sneakers. Though his steps were fainter now with his lighter footwear, he continued to walk in the same dreary and irritated fashion as before. Even his head was lowered slightly now, with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans.

Keith frowned as he once again walked on to follow Lance towards the shower room. The Blue Paladin didn’t have any spare clothes or a towel with him; however he figured that Lance would simply dress back into the clothes he was wearing now once he was done with his shower. Towels were usually kept in the shower room, so it was common to walk there without one.

It took them just a couple of minutes to reach the room in question, with only Lance entering for now. Keith held himself back and waited outside the room for a few minutes, giving the other male time to prepare the shower and calm himself down before he could give in to his curiosity— _if_ he gave in to his curiosity.

Now that he was stood outside of the room, he began to question why exactly he was doing this. Why not just ask Lance about it once he had calmed down? Keith quickly dismissed that idea however, knowing exactly what would happen if he tried doing just that. Even if Lance was calm, he wouldn’t explain himself to Keith. He would most likely laugh it off instead, and tell him to mind his own business or claim that he was fine. That he didn’t need anyone’s pity for feeling homesick — especially if it was coming from Keith.

The Red Paladin briefly wondered for a moment what he would be getting himself into by entering the shower room. There were multiple showers within the room that could be closed off if necessary, so there wasn’t a risk of walking in on Lance whilst he was naked or anything like that. But he would be able to hear things much more clearly if he was stood in the room and outside of Lance’s shower, which was a step up from what he could currently do stood outside of the room altogether.

He also wondered how Lance would react if he realised that he was in the room with him. Would he force him out? Ignore him? Get upset? There was only one way to find out.

After taking in a small breath, Keith reached for the door and slowly slid it to the side, opening it just slightly. He could hear the faint sound of water droplets hitting the tiled floor quite close to him, but it almost sounded like Lance wasn’t inside at all. There were no louder noises from water being rinsed out of his hair and landing on the floor, or even running off parts of his body to land more heavily than if the water was simply falling to the tiles.

Was he not in the shower yet?

Keith hesitated for another minute or so, simply standing with his hand curled around the edge of the door to keep it cracked open so that he could listen out for any sign of movement. Nothing changed however, and it had him feeling slightly concerned all over again. Perhaps Lance was sitting or standing still in a way that the water didn’t make much noise? That had to be it. Lance hadn’t looked ill or faint at all, so he couldn’t have passed out in the shower… Could he?

Keith sighed at himself. He was over-thinking things now, and knew that the only way to settle his thoughts was to slide the door open completely and look to see what was happening for himself.

So that was what he did.

The first thing that he noticed was that he could feel little droplets of water on his hand as soon as he pushed the door open further. With no shower directly above the door, he found that to be a little odd. The droplets were also lighter than shower water, and felt more like light rain than anything else. This piqued Keith’s interest even more, and so he slowly stepped into the room, opening the door further. Once the room was exposed, he wasn’t sure what caught his attention first. One thing that he did notice was that no shower was closed off, and that the room seemed to be one large shower instead. Then, he began to notice more specific features around him.

Golden coloured sand. The tiled floor was nowhere to be seen, and was instead replaced with sand throughout the entire room. It was slightly dark in colour, as if a little wet, but not soaked through completely. There were small holes and sand castles dotted here and there; some looking as though they had only just been built, whilst others were crumbling away with the rain or from having been knocked down.

The room was warmer than the hall outside, but only just. Keith couldn’t feel a breeze, but he could almost imagine one as he looked over the surrounding beach area. It sent a slight shiver through his body, almost able to feel said imaginary breeze blow over the growing wetness on his arms, hands, and face. Though he knew how big the room was, the walls seemed to have disappeared. Instead, there was a long stretch of clear blue water where the wall at the far right should have been, as well as at the edge of the farthest wall from across the room. The water moved with each wave; some gliding over the sand with slower motions than others if they were particularly smaller. It seemed that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t see the wall or where the water ended. The only way he could possibly describe it was that it looked real.

Admittedly, Keith hadn’t ever been to a beach himself. He couldn’t remember a time where he had lived elsewhere besides his house in the desert around the Galaxy Garrison back on Earth, but this was how he had always imagined a beach to look like in person.

His eyes travelled from the water and the sand to the other end of the room. The sand continued on into what looked like a small forest along the edge of the beach, surrounded by both aged and new palm trees. The soft-looking sand was covered in plenty of small twigs, branches and stones, and looked to be more of a wild area that was not visited much by the public. Further back into the light forest, sand gradually turned to patches of thin grass.

Along that same wall, a few small- and medium-sized shacks adorned the sand a small distance away. All were built from wood and had roofs made of thick palm tree leaves, with signs either attached to the top of the roofs or hanging just below. Some had pale-coloured picnic benches outside of them, but even from a distance Keith could see that the paint was chipped in more places than not. They were worn, but appealing in their own way.

Above him, the sky looked clear and oh so blue, dotted with a few white and light gray clouds that were supposedly bringing the rain. They slowly and rather gracefully glided across the sky, and had him smiling for the briefest of moments.

Then, there was Lance.

The Blue Paladin had seen the door open and was staring over at Keith with wide eyes as the two made eye-contact for a few long moments, whilst being sat upright against the base of a thick palm tree. It looked realistic enough that Keith had to remind himself that Lance was actually sitting against the wall, and that the tree had been placed there deliberately to give the area a more genuine appearance.

Lance was still fully clothed, and already looked pretty drenched by the falling water from above. The tree’s leaves were doing nothing to shield him from the rain, which confirmed Keith’s belief that the ‘rain’ wasn’t part of the holographic pictures.

The only things that were real in the room were Keith, Lance, and the falling droplets of water. A small pang of disappointment swept through the Red Paladin with the realisation, before he was snapped back into reality by hearing the other male’s voice.

“Keith?” Lance questioned, his expression twisting from shock to one of slight anxiousness and defensiveness. “You can’t just— what are you doing? Why are you here?”

After giving a small huff in response, Keith stepped into the room, barely noticing as the door slid shut behind him. “Am I not allowed to come here anymore? You should have locked the door if you really didn’t want anyone to come in,” the Red Paladin pointed out. He eyed Lance carefully, only then feeling a small sense of guilt and unease. It was now dawning on him that he had practically walked right into Lance’s head; his safe place that clearly didn’t involve him in any way. He was intruding on the other’s private thoughts, and it made him feel both powerful and uncomfortable at the same time.

Something was keeping him from simply apologising and leaving, however. With each second of looking over Lance’s expression, he began to notice more subtle signs of emotion. Lance’s eyes looked to be a little red, perhaps a little swollen as if they had been rubbed at numerous times. Before he could help it, Keith found himself blurting out, “Are you crying?”

The question had Lance’s eyes widening slightly, and he quickly whipped his head around to stare at the other end of the beach. “What’s it to you?” He shot back, voice nothing more than a grumbled murmur.

Lance wasn’t too keen on having Keith there to see him at his weakest point. He thought that Keith wouldn’t understand. That Keith would mock and tease him for the rest of their time out in space— or for the rest of their lives, whichever came first. That Keith would tell him that he was being childish. Keith would—

Keith would apparently come to sit beside him, and press a warm palm against the waterlogged clothes on his back. The gentle touch almost felt like an embrace, and had Lance’s mind reeling tenfold. He hadn’t been given a genuine hug from anyone since having left Earth, or more specifically, since he had left home. His lip began to quiver, and the teen felt pathetic. He wasn’t even being given a hug; but there he was, just about ready to spill more tears from merely feeling a hand on his back. Or, more specifically, from feeling _Keith’s_ hand on his back.

“Why are you still here?” The blue Paladin managed to choke out, voice barely audible over the sound of the running water that splashed against the surfaces of the tiled floor as well as both his and Keith’s still-clothed bodies. “You don’t care about me.”

That had Keith frowning, though he refused to move his hand away. Lance kept his head down and turned off to the side, and he sighed. “Why does everyone say that?” He questioned, still watching the other Paladin closely.

“I dunno, because we’re rivals?” The brunette mumbled as if it were obvious, slowly glancing back towards Keith. He almost hated himself for the way he was slowly starting to relax back against the other’s hand, but tried to pay it no mind as he continued, “Because you tease me a lot?”

“Well you tease me a lot, too— and besides, you were the one to start this ‘rivalry’ by trying to be better at everything I do,” Keith pointed out in response, raising a brow towards Lance as the other slowly met his gaze once more. Now that he was closer, he could see that the other male really had been crying. The whites of his eyes that surrounded those blue irises were slightly bloodshot, whilst the skin around his eyes was red and a little swollen. With both of their faces being wet by the falling water above and around them, he couldn’t quite tell if there were any tears that were still falling. Since Lance’s voice seemed pretty level for now, he assumed that there weren’t. He felt as though he was compelled to at least try to cheer the other male up, and so he tried to do just that. “We’re closer now though, aren’t we? We’re teammates, and we do make a good team.”

Lance shrugged a little at that, but still found himself nodding with his agreement. He seemed a little uneasy still, unsure of the situation and what Keith would do or say now that he was sat there with him. “Yeah, I guess so…”

Silence fell over the two teens for a few moments then. Keith glanced around himself for a moment before looking back to Lance, a small smirk on his face as he began to talk once more, “Yeah. I mean, you’re a pain in the neck most times, but— Hey!” He jolted slightly and pulled his hand away from Lance’s back when he was given a swift hit to his arm, huffing but not having the heart to hit Lance in return. “I wasn’t finished!”

“I don’t care! That’s what you get,” Lance murmured in response, before smirking back towards the other. It was better to tease than sit in silence, after all. “Are we gonna have a lil’ heart-to-heart moment or something? You’re goin’ soft on me, Keith.”

Keith frowned and felt his cheeks blossom with a slight bit of warmth. He leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms and frowning out towards the sea. “Well if we were, we aren’t going to anymore. You ruined the mood,” he quipped in a murmur. After another moment however, he caught a glimpse of Lance shuffling away from him from the corner of his eye. He was ready to ignore the movement and let the room be enveloped in silence once more, when he suddenly felt Lance’s fingers curling around his arm. Lance’s hand was warm to the touch, and Keith shivered just slightly in response. “What are you doing?” He asked, glancing from the hand to Lance’s face. The touch had done nothing to help the slight blush that had already been plastered over his cheeks, but thankfully, Lance didn’t seem to notice.

Instead, the Blue Paladin only offered a small, weak smile. “You aren’t sat against the tree,” was all he said, and it was all that was needed for Keith to understand. Lance wanted to pretend as though everything was real, and so Keith needed to be a part of it, too. He supposed that sitting up against thin air wasn’t helping with trying to keep up that realistic image.

“Sorry,” he murmured as he sat up, and allowed himself to be pulled closer to where Lance was sat. The tree wasn’t much thicker than a single person’s body, and so it left the two Paladins sat quite close against each other. It was a bit of a squeeze, but surprisingly, the two of them relaxed into their new position relatively quickly. “Is this better?”

Lance nodded in response, and gave a small sigh as he glanced back out to the sea for himself. “Yeah, thanks…”

Keith wasn’t sure what to do or say after that. He was pressed right up close to Lance’s side, and since he was only wearing his v-neck and short-sleeved shirt, he found himself shivering a little more upon having his bare arm come into contact with the other’s cold, wet jacket. He wondered if Lance was starting to feel as cold as he was feeling, and found himself being curious enough to subtly brush his hand up against Lance’s whilst shifting his arm. As he took in a small breath at the feeling of warm skin brushing and radiating against his own, Lance’s hand flinched away in surprise.

“Fuck, Keith— your hand’s cold!” He complained, pulling and tucking his hand away beneath his jacket in an attempt to keep it warm as he looked to Keith sat beside him. “Why don’t you have your jacket, anyway? I could switch the water off if you don’t want to sit in it—”

The other Paladin simply shook his head, however. “I was training with the gladiator earlier, so I didn’t wear it. It’s back in my room,” Keith interrupted the other male, shaking his head in an attempt to reassure him that he was okay with the water for now, at least. He felt a small flash of warmth in his chest from hearing Lance’s obvious concern towards him, and smiled slightly when he continued. “I’ll be fine, Lance. How is it…raining like this, anyway? The showers aren’t on,” he asked, curiously glancing up above them both in an attempt to answer his question for himself. After only ending up getting a little water in his eye, he ducked his head back down to rub it away and waited for Lance to explain.

After eyeing up the Red Paladin with doubt, Lance slowly lowered his hand back down to the floor beside Keith’s and began to relax once more. “Well, okay… But don’t blame me if you end up with a cold,” he murmured, frowning just slightly before he briefly glanced up to the ceiling himself. “Coran knew that the showers wouldn’t cut it for the rain, so we put up a few little sprinklers on the roof. It helps a little, but… It’s just not home, y’know? It’s not the same…”

Lance ducked his head then, and brought his knees up to hug them to his chest. Before Keith could speak, he was continuing on. It was clear that he wanted to get things off his chest, and so Keith just sat there and let him.

“No matter how hard I try, it doesn’t feel the same. I can still feel the tiles instead of sand, and I end up walking into the walls if I want to try and get closer to the sea or the shacks. And there’s nobody here… I used to like being alone on the beach at home sometimes, but now I want _somebody_ here. Even some kids messing around a mile down the coast would be better than nothing,” Lance quietly admitted, scuffing one of his shoes against the floor.

“Why didn’t you think of people when you were giving your memories to the system?” Keith asked, watching Lance curiously. “You could have had people here if you wanted them, right?”

Lance, however, shook his head. “Apparently it can’t work like that. I can’t imagine up some random people because they would need to give their own memories and how they would act, or something like that. I can’t remember how Coran worded it, but I just can’t do it. I need other people to willingly give stuff to the system to have them here. He let me try though, and I thought of my family as much as I could, but it didn’t work… I don’t even have a photo of them,” the Blue Paladin mumbled quietly, once again averting his gaze to the far left of the beach so that he didn’t have to look at Keith.

From beside Lance, Keith was unsure of what to do or say. He clearly had his own family out there somewhere, but to be honest, even he didn’t know what had happened to them. He had been sent off to the Garrison at an earlier age than most others within the program, and he practically lived there until being kicked out. He didn’t have a family to remember or think about, and only wished to return back to Earth for the familiarity and comfort of his little house in the desert. With those thoughts at the forefront of his mind, he began to speak.

“I know you miss them, Lance. We all miss Earth in one way or another, and I guess that only means that we’ll be more likely to return to it one day,” the Red Paladin murmured, watching as Lance tensed just slightly at his side. He wondered if he anticipated some sort of witty comeback, but instead continued on with his calm tone. “I get homesick sometimes, too. I don’t have a family back home waiting for me, and maybe nothing there misses me, but I still miss it.”

“That’s just kind of depressing, if you’re trying to make me feel better,” Lance mumbled in response, though he did relax a little and frown a little more sadly out towards the sea.

Keith simply rolled his eyes, “Well once again, you didn’t let me finish,” he pointed out, his tone matter-of-fact. After giving a small sigh, he pushed himself to continue. “Do you want to know how I look at things in a better light?”

That piqued Lance’s interest. The Blue Paladin once again looked back to the other, resting his chin atop his knees. Admittedly, he did feel a little silly confiding in Keith like this. But at the same time, it felt nice to finally have someone with him to talk through things, and try to help make him feel better. “How do you look at it…?” He questioned, both curious and a little doubtful with what Keith was about to say. It was most likely something that he had already tried to think about, that never really worked in the past. When the Red Paladin smiled a little however, he had a feeling that perhaps it would help more than he first thought.

“Well, there are five of us in Team Voltron, right? We’re all from Earth,” Keith began, ignoring the soft ‘duh’ that sounded from the other Paladin to his left in order to continue on. “Then that means we are all fighting for the same thing. We’re all driven to see our families and homes again, back there on Earth. We all want to protect _something_ back home, so doesn’t that mean that we’re much more likely to see it again?”

That made Lance think, and eventually had him nodding slightly. He then frowned a little however, “If this is your way of saying ‘hey, we’re all suffering out here too’—”

“No, Lance. That’s not it,” Keith immediately shook his head. “What I’m saying is that we’re all out here fighting for each other. If you have our backs and you’re trying your best to get us home, then you’ll have four of us helping you in return,” he elaborated, watching with a small smile as the other simply blinked towards him. “We want to get you home as much as you want to be there, Lance.”

At first, Keith was uncertain whether that would help make Lance feel a little better or not. But then he noticed how the other’s lower lip began to tremble, and hesitated for a few moments with wanting to pull Lance into some sort of a reassuring hug. _Surely it would be too weird_ , he thought to himself. Lance wouldn’t want it, and it would only ruin what progress they appeared to have made.

But then he thought back to how the brunette had responded to a hand on his back. No matter how hard the other Paladin had tried to hide it, he had noticed that the touch had had Lance struggling to hold himself together and talking through his tears, which surely meant that he appreciated the gesture…right?

Keith silently sighed to himself. For apparently being the most instinctual Paladin within the team, he sure did over-think things a lot when it came to Lance. Perhaps, he reasoned, it was because he was more driven to cause something rather than put an end to it.

He wanted to see Lance smile again.

So, without thinking about anything else and being driven by that one bit of motivation, he reached out his arms and wrapped them around the other Paladin’s torso. Within seconds of bringing the other against his chest, Keith felt and heard a shuddering breath at his ear, followed by Lance’s arms coming to wrap around him in response. He didn’t dare move as his shoulder was suddenly being nuzzled into by the other’s face, besides only beginning to rub a slow hand over Lance’s back as he felt the other’s chest heave with his cries.

Apart from being able to hear Lance’s emotional sobs and whimpers of how much he missed his family, the room was otherwise silent. Not even the rain seemed to make much noise anymore, which Keith was almost thankful for. Lance needed him, and he wanted to pay no attention to anything but the other in his arms.

This only lasted for a minute or two at most however, and soon Lance was pulling away to rub at his eyes with a grimace. They were red and swollen all over again, and Keith was brought back to the reality of how cold he really felt. Lance had felt so warm against him and in his arms, and he shuddered as his body tried to adjust without having that heat there with him anymore.

“Sorry…” The brunette mumbled after sniffling particularly loudly, hearing it echo throughout the room. Keith only shook his head in response, and settled back against the imaginary tree as Lance began to calm himself down.

It felt oddly intimate for both Paladins, sat together in the holographic sand as they watched the waves together after just having their heart-to-heart moment. It was as though Keith was being shown a different side of Lance, both of his home and personality. And both males seemed to be pretty content with that knowledge.

“You know,” Lance broke the silence after another few minutes, his tone quiet and a little broken from having just been crying, “You’re lucky the sand isn’t real. I totally would’ve hit you with a handful of it if it was.”

“I don’t doubt that,” Keith rolled his eyes in response, then curiously ran a hand over the tiled floor, watching as his hand fazed through the sand as he did so. He wanted to play along with Lance’s teasing, wanting to move on from sadness and on to bringing back that infamous smile. “You probably would have thrown it in the wind and have it blown back in your face, though.”

Both teens began to snicker at the thought and for once, they felt truly warm and at peace with each other. They were finally bonding outside of training and working together, and it clearly made the two of them happy. Despite feeling warm on the inside however, it was becoming increasingly difficult for Keith to mask his shivering as simply shuffling against the other male’s side.

Lance eventually noticed, and sighed as he leaned forwards enough to pull off his jacket. “Okay seriously, you’re gonna catch a cold. I don’t want you sneezing all over me,” he teased, then simply dumped his jacket over the top of the Red Paladin’s head.

“Lance—!” The muffled protest sounded from beneath the wet fabric as Keith reached up, clearly trying to pull it down to cover his shoulders instead. He appreciated the warmth and slight bit of cover from the falling droplets of water, but found himself pouting and huffing towards Lance as the other began to laugh.

“Yo, it’s like your mullet has a mind of its own or something!” The Blue Paladin snickered, grinning as Keith then reached up and tried to fix his dishevelled hair. “I always thought that thing was cursed.”

The Red Paladin only huffed, and turned his head away as he fixed his hair. It felt a little knotted with how wet it felt, and the jacket clearly hadn’t done anything to help that.

He only hoped that nobody would be there to see them as they left the room. Keith was sure that he looked stupid enough now as it was with his messy hair, besides the two of them being drenched to the bone.

“I am glad that it was you who came here, though.” Lance’s gentle voice suddenly sounded from beside Keith, who curiously turned his head to listen closely.

His hands were still in his hair, but he slowly lowered them and raised a brow instead before responding with a surprised tone, “Really? Because I was pretty sure that I was going to get an earful of screeching or a face full of punches for being nosey,” he smirked, and Lance snickered a little in response.

“Well, yeah, I was thinking of doing that at first,” the Blue Paladin admitted, nudging his arm against Keith’s before continuing. “But seriously, I am. You were the one that gave Coran the idea to help me, right?” He then asked, and Keith felt his entire being freeze up beside the other male.

“What? I—I don’t know what you’re—”

Lance didn’t stop, however, “Oh c’mon, Keith. Coran told me everything,” he interrupted with a cocky grin, seeming to enjoy watching Keith squirm slightly from beside him. “Like how you were the one to explain your idea to Shiro, and that you had Shiro go to Coran and Allura with the idea instead of doing it yourself.”

Keith felt utterly embarrassed. He found himself averting his gaze just as Lance was finishing with his explanation, cheeks red for the umpteenth time that day. He still wanted to deny everything, or at least try to defend himself. “Lance, really. I—”

Suddenly, Lance was shifting from beside him and coming to reach over and lean over him, with his one arm passing over Keith’s legs to place it on the floor at the other side of him. The Blue Paladin was almost on his knees as he tried stretching and supporting himself above part of the other’s body, wanting to have his face as close to Keith’s as possible. Keith knew that he was only trying to tease him further, and oh was it working.

“What is it, Keith? Do you _care_ about me?” Lance cooed towards Keith, and the latter groaned in response.

“Lance—”

“I know you care about me, Keith~” The Blue Paladin began to chime in his sing-song voice, making the other Paladin cringe just slightly. Then, Lance was coming in closer and lowering his voice to a whisper. “You care about me because you _like me_ ,” he continued to tease.

Whether it had meant to be teasing or not, it had Keith’s face blossoming into a darker shade of red. At first Lance began to laugh in response, but when he received no other word of denial from Keith, even that died down.

The two of them stared at each other for what seemed like forever. Whilst Lance was trying to work out what was going on, Keith’s mind was short-circuiting.

Why hadn’t he denied it? Why was Lance looking at him like that? Fuck, his cheeks were _burning_ —

Then, he saw the slightest bit of red flood across the other Paladin’s cheeks. Both males were still sat close together, so it was quite hard to miss, really. Neither of them found that they could look away or speak up, and so the silence continued on for a painfully long time before finally, Keith had to speak up.

“Hey, Lance?” Keith questioned, a little breathless as he pulled the other Paladin in closer by his shirt, feeling the jacket slip from his shoulders just slightly. Their faces were now only inches apart, with the distance shortening after each passing second. He didn’t even know what to think of his own actions, but the only voice within his head just told him to keep going. Keep pushing until Lance wouldn’t let him push anymore.

He heard the muffled noise of Lance swallowing thickly in response, and could feel the warmth radiating from both of their cheeks as both of them pressed in closer. Surprisingly the other male still managed to find his voice, but it wasn’t to tell Keith to ‘back off’ or start rambling on about personal space. Instead, the one word that he was given in response only served to push Keith further.

“Yeah…?”

It came out a little low and deep which wasn’t at all like Lance’s usual tone, and with the warm breath rushing out to linger on his own lips, Keith couldn’t hold himself back.

Their lips met almost immediately, with Lance pressing back against Keith as soon as he had felt the movements towards him. Neither of them had their eyes open, but both were just as surprised as the other. Whilst Keith had gasped slightly against the other’s lips from the surprise of Lance reciprocating the intimate gesture, the other gasped from having received it in the first place.

Whether it had been a surprise or not, neither Paladin seemed to want to complain about being so close, or having their lips locked in a slightly hesitant yet desperate kiss.

It only lasted for a brief few moments, with Keith pulling back and smiling lightly as their foreheads met.

“We’re going to get you home, Lance.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys liked the space gays--
> 
> Comments are appreciated since it's my first fic here, and I'd love to hear from you all~ You can also send a message to my tumblr account below if you want to, since I'll probably upload it there sometime too! (I'm also much more active there than here, but I'll definitely check back to read any comments if I get some!)
> 
> Thanks for reading!!
> 
> Tumblr: rbcccmly


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